home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Cream of the Crop 11
/
Cream of the Crop 11-1.iso
/
comm
/
slip_new.zip
/
NEWSDOC.TXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-09-07
|
36KB
|
952 lines
Trumpet Version 1.06
A News Reader for MS-DOS machines.
by Peter R. Tattam
Email: peter@psychnet.psychol.utas.edu.au
Copyright (C) 1991,1992
Page 2 Trumpet Version 1.05
Introduction
Trumpet is an NNTP newsreader for PC's running on MS-DOS. It requires
the use of a Packet Driver using either Blue-book ethernet or SLIP
packets. It provides the user with user-friendly environment for
news-reading and also supports the use of a mouse for point-and-click
use. Under some circumstances, Trumpet will also run under Windows
3.x, but as a DOS application only.
Disclaimer
This program is Copyright (C) 1991,1992 by Peter R. Tattam, All Rights
Reserved.
It is provided as shareware with the following limitations:
This program is shareware and is not to be resold or
distributed for sale with other programs which are for
sale. There is no warranty or claim of fitness or
reliability. The program is distributed AS IS, and as
such neither the author nor the University of Tasmania
shall be held liable for any loss of data, down time,
loss of revenue or any other direct or indirect damage
or claims caused by this program.
Using Trumpet for the first time
If you are running Trumpet for the first time, you must first make
sure that you have a packet driver loaded. Packet drivers are
available from many sources, of which the most public accessible is
the SIMTEL20 MS-DOS program archive. Many sites mirror this archive
around the world.
First type
NEWS
You should be presented with a copyright notice. Type <enter> to
continue. You will then be given a setup screen. You will need to
fill in quite a few details regarding your network. If you are
running from a Novell network, you may not be able to edit some
fields. Fill in those which you are able to fill in. Use the <tab> key
to move from field to field. After you have completed the setup
screen, type <enter>. When you are starting for the first time,
Trumpet subscribes you to all the groups that are on the news server.
This number can be quite large on some news servers, so if you like,
you can type <Alt-E><Alt-Z> to unsubscribe from all news groups, and
then <ins> to open up the subscribe box and just select the news
groups which interest you by moving to the name of the newsgroup and
typing <enter>. When you are satisfied that you have the news groups
that you wish to view, proceed to the next section.
Using Trumpet Normally
Trumpet Version 1.05 Page 3
When using NEWS, if all goes well, you should be connected to the NNTP
server and then you will be able to read the news. You will be
presented with a large window with 2 scrolling frames. The top frame
is for locating a newsgroup, the bottom for scanning through a group.
A group's articles will not be displayed until the newsgroup is
selected with <enter>. To jump between the frames, type <tab>. To move
about, use the cursor keys or click on the scroll bars with a mouse.
You may also locate a group or subject by typing a sequence of
characters which form part of the group name or article subject. For
example the sequence 'n','o','v','e' will locate the group
'comp.sys.novell'. This makes it easy to locate a group or subject
without typing too much.
Note: if NEWS.INI does not exist, Trumpet will attempt to subscribe to
all the newsgroups available. This could take some time, and make you
think that the computer has gone dead. A ticker should count over
showing you that Trumpet is loading all the newsgroup info. The same
thing happens when you select the subscribe box.
Page 4 Trumpet Version 1.05
To read an article, merely select the article in the lower window by
pressing <enter>. You can move about the article with the cursor keys,
or if you have a mouse, you can click on the scroll bars. Try using
the F7/F8 keys to move from article to article. You can also click on
the bottom status line to invoke the commands if you have a mouse
loaded.
All in all, the program is probably "self-explanatory".
(well not really, but I'm sure you'll figure it out :-)
Here are some of the special commands available from the various parts
of the program. Note that [key] means press the ALT key at the same
time as pressing that key. For example, [R] means press ALT + R at
the same time.
In the news group window (The top frame)
Ins open a window of all the unsubscribed groups
(when open, <enter> will subscribe the newsgroup)
Del unsubscibe from a news groups
Enter scan the newsgroup for articles.
In the news article window (The bottom frame)
F7/F8 will jump to the prev/next group with articles to be read.
F9 swap to article viewer and vice versa
F10 cycle through header formats.
esc return to news group window.
enter retrieve the article and view it.
[R]eadall will mark all the articles as having been read for the
current group and then scan to the next group with articles
in it.
[U]nread Unread 20 articles at a time.
[T]oggle will toggle the read status of an article.
[S]kip will mark the article as having been read without reading
it.
[F]ollow do a follow up to the article.
[P]ost post a new article
f[O]rward forward article to mail user (defaults to self)
In the article reader window (When an article has been selected)
[H]eader toggle viewing of the header
[W]ordwrap toggle word wrapping
[P]rint print an article (Can also save to a file this way)
[S]ave save article to a file (if files exists, then it is
appended)
[M]ail mail a letter to author of the article.
[R]eply mail a reply to the author of the article. (includes
article)
f[O]rward forward article to mail user (defaults to self)
F9 swap back to news article window and vice versa
Trumpet Version 1.05 Page 5
esc return to news article window
F10 toggle rot13 decoding
The use of a mouse is supported via the standard mouse driver. Load
your mouse driver before use.
Page 6 Trumpet Version 1.05
The Trumpet Menu
Here is a list of the menus in Trumpet 1.06
Special Video mode - toggle the video mode from 25 to
(43-50) line mode
Dos - shell to dos
Setup - the setup dialog
Reconnect - reconnect to the NNTP server. (useful
after having sent a posting)
Exit - exit the program
Group Readall - read all current articles in news
item list
Unread 10 - unread by 10 articles
Unread 20 - unread by 20 articles (same as hot key
Unread)
Unread - unread all
Catch up - similar to Readall, but catches up
completely without rescanning group
Catch up all - marks all newsgroups as having been
read.
Subscribe - subscribe to new groups
Subscribe with mask - subscribe using a search mask. Useful
if memory can't hold all the news groups.
Unsubscribe - unsubscribe current group
Zap all - unsubscibe from all news groups. use
with caution.
Article Post - post a new article to a newsgroup
Follow - post a follow up to another article on
a newsgroup
Cancel - cancel a posting you have sent.
Mail - send an article to the author of an
article without quoted article
Reply - send an article to the author of an
article quoting the article
Forward - forward an article by mail without
quoting article but rather by including it.
Print - print an article
Save - save article to a file
Append - append article to a file
Quit quits Trumpet
<hidden> registration of trumpet
Trumpet Version 1.05 Page 7
Providing command line parameters to Trumpet
NEWS takes the following parameters.
news { -option }
The option '-d' enables debugging. This is only used for debugging
the TCP/IP part of the program.
An example of providing parameters from the command line would be
news -myip=133.32.1.5 -netmask=255.255.0.0 -gateway=133.32.250.1
Parameters may be in any order and can be read from the NEWS.PRM file,
the command line, or environment variables.
The individual parameters are
nntp-host domain name or IP address of the NNTP server
smtp-host domain name or IP address of the SMTP server
dns-host IP address of Domain name server
time-host IP address of Time server
myip an ip address, rarp or bootp (in lower case)
netmask your ip local network mask
mygateway ip address of your gateway outside your local net
mss maximum segment size that tcp can send. default 512
rwin size of the tcp receive window.
site your e-mail site name
user your e-mail user name
organizationthe name of your organization
fullname your full name
signame your signature file name
protect disallow users to change setup
options your saved Trumpet options
title-formatyour saved Trumpet title format
timeout timeout in seconds for commands to time out. leave
large (> 600).
vector Hex specification of the packet driver vector number
debug debug options (see later)
dbfile debug file name
d equivalent to -debug=t
maildir specification of the maildir location (command line or
environment variable only).
disable_nw disable any netware features of trumpet (command line
or env. var. only)
nobatch disable batching of XHDR commands
Debug options
The parameter -debug enables certain debugging options.
the format is
Page 8 Trumpet Version 1.05
news -debug=xyz
where xyz is a string of the following characters
Trumpet Version 1.05 Page 9
e = ether header trace (only if ip trace, arp trace or rarp trace is
on)
a = arp trace
r = rarp trace
u = udp trace
i = ip trace
t = tcp trace
e.g.
news -debug=eat
will trace arp packets with ether headers, and trace the tcp
The -d option is equivalent to -debug=t
You can also send output to a debug file with the option -dbfile
e.g.
news -d -dbfile=test.dbg
will trace the tcp info into the file 'test.dbg'
What Trumpet needs
The files required are
NEWS.EXE - the executable file.
NEWS.PRM - a setup file for the news reader.
NEWS.INI - a list of the newsgroups subscribed to.
Also required
A packet driver of class 1 (Bluebook) or class 6 (SLIP)
Optionally required Mouse driver
A typical stand-alone setup would look like this
myip = 131.217.35.100
user = peter
netmask = 255.255.0.0
mygateway = 131.217.250.1
nntp-host = deimen.utas.edu.au:119
smtp-host = 131.217.1.19
dns-host = 131.217.1.19
time-host = 131.217.1.19
site = psychnet.psychol.utas.edu.au
organization = Psychology Department, University of Tasmania
mss = 512
rwin = 4096
fullname = Peter R. Tattam
signame = c:\news\my.sig
Page 10 Trumpet Version 1.05
Notes for Novell NetWare(tm) Users
Trumpet recognizes the existence of a NetWare network, and will act
appropriately. Individual users will save their own NEWS.PRM and
NEWS.INI in their mail directory. This directory is SYS:MAIL\nnnn
where nnnn is their unique user-id number.
NetWare users will have some parameters stored in their user parameter
file and the rest loaded from a global parameter file. When running
from a network, some parameters may change from machine to machine.
One such parameter is the ip address 'myip'. One can use RARP or BOOTP
to determine the IP address of a workstation, or pass the address via
the command-line or environment variables.
The suggested way to run Trumpet is as follows. The Trumpet NEWS.EXE
program should reside in a public directory. e.g. SYS:PUBLIC or
SYS:TRUMPET
A typical public setup follows. Notice that some parameters are
missing.
myip = rarp
netmask = 255.255.0.0
mygateway = 131.217.250.1
nntp-host = 131.217.1.19
smtp-host = 131.217.1.19
dns-host = 131.217.1.19
time-host = 131.217.1.19
site = psychnet.psychol.utas.edu.au
organization= Psychology Department, University of Tasmania
rwin = 4096
mss = 1024
user = *
fullname = *
timeout = 600
A typical user setup might be
signame = c:\news\my.sig
Trumpet will only require the file NEWS.PRM in the public directory.
For full security, this file should contain all the Trumpet parameters
except those which you allow users to modify. If the user and
fullname are specified, they should have a "*" as their parameter.
This means to load the username and fullname from the novell server.
When Trumpet is started for the first time, the user will
automatically have a NEWS.INI and NEWS.PRM created in their mail
directory. When Trumpet is started, the existence of a NEWS.INI is
checked,and if one is not found, a list of news groups will be
retrieved from the NNTP server. This can take some time, so be
patient. If the setting -protect is provided then the user will not
be able to change any of the settings.
Trumpet Version 1.05 Page 11
The sequence of events for a novell user are :
1) determination of mail directory
2) NEWS.PRM loaded from user mail directory. (if exists)
2-a) environment variable overrides
2-b) command-line overrides
3) NEWS.PRM loaded from NEWS.EXE directory. This will override
any attempt to forge some of the global parameters.
4) if user and/or full name not set, then retrieve from server.
5) NNTP session opened.
6-a) if NEWS.INI exists in user mail directory then load it
6-b) or if NEWS.INI exists in NEWS.EXE directory then load it
6-c) or subscribe to all newsgroups on the NNTP server.
....
....
[ optional
7) User changes Setup (limited to only .sig file name)
8) NEWS.PRM saved in mail directory
]
....
....
9) User quits.
10) NEWS.INI saved in mail directory
11) NEWS.PRM saved in user's mail directory. (only the screen
settings updated)
12) NNTP session ended.
13) program ends.
Special Novell Group Management
If you are running Trumpet in a NetWare environment, you may want to
take advantage of the security features which can be enabled using
NetWare groups. One can give Trumpet users certain privileges by
having the user belong to one of the following groups. If any of
these groups exist on your NetWare server, then the security options
will be enforced. If the groups exist, but the user is in none of
them, news access will be barred completely. The user must also be
logged on for the security features to be enabled, so care should be
taken to make sure that the executables cannot be copied to a private
disk and executed from there.
In the following,
read means the user can read news articles
subscribe means the user can subscribe to news groups
post means the user can post articles via NNTP
mail means the user can mail articles using SMTP
NEWSREADERS read and subscribe enabled
NEWSPOSTERS read, post and subscribe enabled
NEWSMAILERS read, mail and subscribe enabled
NEWSNOSUBS read enabled, subscribe disabled
NEWSALL read, post, mail, subscribe enabled
Page 12 Trumpet Version 1.05
The groups may be combined, but the groups are processed in the order
presented This means that NEWSALL will override all other settings.
Trumpet Version 1.05 Page 13
NEWS.INI format
You may modify your own news.ini file. This can save space in
Trumpet. The file is simply a list of lines, one per newsgroup.
Each line has the following format.
<line> ::= <name> <subscribed> <readto> <unread-list>
where
<name> ::= string
<subscribed> ::= "Y" | "N"
<readto> ::= integer
<unread-list> ::= { integer ["-" integer ] }
e.g.
comp.sys.novell Y 2345
sci.physics Y 1234 1021 1034-1041 1211
This format will be discontinued in the future releases. I hope to
standardize to the .newsrc format used by unix systems.
Page 14 Trumpet Version 1.05
Bug Reports
If you find a bug in Trumpet, I would like to hear about it.
You can e-mail me at
peter@psychnet.psychol.utas.edu.au
If you can, send me the NEWS.PRM that you are using (supervisor
version if using Novell), and a simple trace of the form
news -d -dbfile=simple.dbg
and then
news -debug=eairtu -dbfile=full.dbg
Trouble shooting check list
Can't connect to NNTP server.
Check that you have a packet driver loaded. Packet driver help
is available from nelson@crynwr.com
Check that you have a valid IP-address either manually or via
RARP or BOOTP.
Try telnetting to port 119 of the NNTP host using NCSA telnet to
see if it is accessible.
Can access NNTP server but can't read any articles.
You need to be authorized to use the NNTP server.
See the administrator of the NNTP server.
Can read articles, but can't POST.
You need to be authorized to post articles.
Some groups don't allow posting.
Can read articles, but can't MAIL.
Have you filled in the SMTP-HOST parameter?
You need to be authorized to use the SMTP host.
See the system administrator.
Interface runs really, really slow. (on ethernet)
Packets are most likely being dropped because your host is
sending too many packets at a time. Try setting RWIN=512, and
MSS=512. Experiment a little.
Interface runs really, really slow. (via SLIP).
Trumpet Version 1.05 Page 15
You really want to use Trumpet via SLIP???? :-) Seriously...
Later versions of Trumpet may have special facilities for
background SLIP processing. If you are running SLIP, you may want
to set MSS to a smaller size. (say 128 or 256)
When I read large groups or large articles, Trumpet bombs.
This shouldn't happen much any more. How much memory do you
have?
Watch the avail memory indicator at the top of the screen.
Please tell me about it. I want to fix this.
Trumpet hangs halfway through a session.
Many possible causes.
IPXPKT being used with mss > 256.... set mss=256
Communications broken.
Some TSR is interacting badly with Trumpet.
Mouse driver behaving badly.
Monster groups/articles.
Trumpet has timed out perhaps due to some kind of net failure.
Perhaps the batching of commands is not working. try -nobatch
XHDR command not implemented on news server.
Known bugs
Out of sync sessions cause havoc. Don't set timeout too small.
Please report any bugs to
peter@psychnet.psychol.utas.edu.au
You can trace bugs with posting by creating a file called POST.LOG in
the same directory as NEWS.INI. All lines posted to the NNTP server
will be saved in this file.
Current wish list
Archiving of articles via a simple database. (not far off now)
Automatic uuencode/uudecode facility for binary postings.
Use external editor
Mail a copy of posting
Cut & paste in editor (and a clipboard)
Print out in Postscript
A decent Manual
This .DOC needs rewriting.
No Print/File save error dialogs.
Page 16 Trumpet Version 1.05
Trumpet is going Shareware
From version 1.05, Trumpet has become shareware. Due to the
unprecedented demand for more features to be added to Trumpet, I am
intending to recover some of the costs in the development of Trumpet.
You may use Trumpet for up to a month to evaluate its usefulness. If
at the end of that time you are satisfied with Trumpet as a product,
you can register Trumpet. The basic registration fee for a single
user version of Trumpet is US$10. Versions 1.05 and later are
shareware and are available from the Internet. The distribution site
is ftp.utas.edu.au:/pc/trumpet/dostrump/*
Registration of Trumpet 1.06
All you need to do is send US$10 plus US$5 postage for the
registration password and you will receive the registration password
for Trumpet in the mail.
Should you require a copy on disk instead, there will be a cost of $10
per disk which includes the password.
Multi-user site license
Trumpet will be charged by the number of simultaneous users . The
pricing structure for commercial users is thus
1-99 users $10 US per user
100-999 users $1000 US + $2 US per additional user above 100
1000-4999 users$2800 US + $0.20 US per additional user over 1000
5000+ $3600 US
site restriction 10km
The pricing structure for educational users is thus
1-99 users $10 US per user
100+ $1000 US
site restriction unlimited.
Australian users should contact me regarding Australian pricing
information and availability.
Cheques or Postal Orders should be made out to
Psychology Department, University of Tasmania
and sent to
Trumpet Software,
c/- Psychology Department,
University of Tasmania
GPO Box 252C,
HOBART, TAS AUSTRALIA 7001
Trumpet Version 1.05 Page 17
You may fill out the following order form and send it along with your
cheque or Postal Order to the above address.
Please note that International mail can be rather slow, and it may
take up to 2 months to receive your registration.
Page 18 Trumpet Version 1.05
+-----------------------------------+
| O R D E R F O R M |
| for Trumpet version 1.06 Software |
+-----------------------------------+
Ship to: Bill to:
[ ] [ ]
[ ] [ ]
[ ] [ ]
[ ] [ ]
[ ] [ ]
Please supply the following items:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Licence to use Trumpet 1.06 for [ ] users. . . . . US$[ ]
Tick at least one of the following options.
[ ] 5.25" disk with the latest version of Trumpet + password
Cost - US$10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . US$[ ]
[ ] 3.5" disk with the latest version of Trumpet + password
Cost - US$10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . US$[ ]
OR
[ ] administration cost of sending registration password
Cost - US$5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . US$[ ]
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . US$[ ]
Your registration name (required) (will appear on program)
[___________________________________________________________________]
Your email address (optional)
[___________________________________________________________________]
Trumpet Version 1.05 Page 19
Trumpet Bug History
Version 1.01 fixes the following bugs.
Internal - NNTP result codes interpreted when exceptions occur.
TCP/IP - modified to recycle packets out of sequence
Unable to change IP address on command line.
Some posting editor bugs fixed.
Fixed RARP packets, timeout 10 seconds (was 5).
Enhancements in Version 1.01
On initial startup (or NEWS.INI missing) the setup screen appears
automatically.
Any error conditions will display a message on the screen for a couple
of seconds.
U(nread command now unreads 20 articles at a time
Version 1.02 fixes the following bugs
Check for low memory. Displays a message, and limps on with reduced
memory.
Article numbers > 65535 should work now.
Version 1.03 fixes the following bugs
Some ARP code broken.
TCP code improved for sending data.
SMTP address not saved after setup screen.
fixed bug when unread list contains old articles which have
disappeared from NNTP host.
Fixed bug in screen display when focussing a new group without
loading.
Fixed bug introduced by Memory low checking. If there were unread
articles, the readto pointer was assigned to the last of them. Updated
correctly now.
Version 1.03 Enhancements
Forwarding command in article and news item windows. (defaults to
self)
Mail command sends new letter to author of article.
Reply command replies to author of article.
Indicator on start up about IP address shows netmask and default
gateway.
More dials on load/save of news.ini.
Full name extracted from Novell bindery.
BOOTP installed.
More robust Novell usage.
Command line entry of all parameters.
Extended debug options.
Page 20 Trumpet Version 1.05
Version 1.04 Bug fixes
TCP code modified to avoid Silly Window Syndrome
Inclusion of RWIN parameter for small/slow ethernet adaptors.
RARP bug fixed (The BOOTP enhancement broke this part)
Path line contains the DNS look up for the IP address.
Date line fixed to conform to Usenet format.
Traces may be sent to a text file for later analysis
You can now escape using any when reading large groups.
You can now shell to DOS.
Version 1.05A bug fixes
The "time-server address not specified causing articles to be rejected
because of weird date: header" bug is fixed.
Packet driver hooks modified to allow trace to work.
The SMTP session is more robust. RCPT TO lines processed properly.
CC: now works.
Some changes to the TCP code.
Version 1.05A Enhancements
Saves Trumpet settings
Lots of cosmetic changes to the program.
Improved Article header layout.
Support for SLIP included.
Timeout on NNTP commands
Rot13 support (try F9 in the article viewer)
Mail directory can be supplied via command line or environment
variables.
Send copy of mail to self.
A net status indicator.
A clock.
The packet driver interrupt number can be set.
NNTP port number can be set at end of NNTP host name.
Version 1.05B Bug fixes/enhancements
Mail now has a Date: header
Mail to multiple recipients works (separate by commas, but don't use a
comma in a comment)
Added an option to disallow a user to change the setup (option -
protect)
Added some file error retry dialogs for the Print/Save commands.
The save of the news.prm file has been changed to use a temporary file
when saving.
Maildir command has automatic append of "\" if not provided.
IP header check sums checked. (were not before)
Version 1.05C Bug fixes
BOOTP processing improved to allow any vendor type other than standard
bootp options.
Trumpet Version 1.05 Page 21
Version 1.05D Bug fixes
Small packets not checked for. (Introduced by SLIP) Crashes with some
packet drivers.
Page 22 Trumpet Version 1.05
Version 1.05E Bug fixes/enhancements
Inclusion of a Cancel Article option.
Removal of any reference to supervisor for Novell Systems.
Fixed bug where environment/command line parameters were saved in
news.prm by mistake.
Modified default timeout from 60 seconds to 600 seconds.
Modified the Posting/Mailing Dialogues to cope with user pressing
<esc> by mistake when creating an article.
Version 1.05F Bug fixes/enhancements
Article line counting.
0 line count appearing on Article list removed.
Cross referencing processing of read articles added. (will cause
possible slow down of article scanning)
Inclusion of a -disable_nw option to disable NetWare maildir/username
processing (cammand line or environment variable only).
Bugs in 1.05E tcp fixed.
Bug where users gateway wasn't disabled from setup menu fixed.
Fixed empty RCPT TO: fields (empty fields) in SMTP processing.
Version 1.05G Bug fixes
Bug fixed which was introduced in revision F relating to removing
spaces from some trumpet parameters.
Bug fixed relating to 25/43-50 line mode switching.
Version 1.05H Bug fixes/enhancements
Added workaround for bug introduced by 1.05F/G with batching XHDR
commands. Workaround is
option -nobatch.
Fixed possible bootp freezing problem.
Added Novell group security processing. See section in
doucumentation.
Added DOS shell protection if -protect option set.
Added ability to reconnect the NNTP session without restarting
Trumpet.
Version 1.05I Bug fixes
Bug fixed where dns-host and time-host setting not recognized from
setup. (introduced by 1.05H modifications)
Version 1.06A changes
New look & feel similar to Trumpet for Windows - new menus, added
features
Improved memory management and out of memory handling.
Cut & paste now works.
A new revamped TCP is being used. It is faster than the previous
version.
Try out the auto-scroll feature using the mouse in the article viewer.
Trumpet Version 1.05 Page 23
Version 1.06B bug fixes/changes
Fixed out bounds error unsubscribing from empty newgroup list.
Fixed bugs relating to crashing when shelling to DOS.
Added DPMI version (packet driver only at this stage)
Fixed bug with blank screens.
Added <space>/<return>/<rubout> keyboard hotkeys in viewer.
Page 24 Trumpet Version 1.05
Acknowledgements
The following packages are acknowledged in the development of Trumpet.
Turbo Vision for Turbo Pascal 7.0 by Borland International
TSPA2760 library of Turbo Pascal units available from garbo.uwasa.fi
by Prof. Timo Salmi, moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous FTP
archives at the University of Vaasa, Finland.
DPMI Runtime environment by Borland International